BJP holds back-to-back meetings over govt formation in Uttarakhand, Manipur & Goa

|HT|

The BJP, it seems, has been holding back-to-back meetings since Saturday over the government formation in Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa - the states the party retained in this round of assembly elections, apart from Uttar Pradesh. While Yogi Adityanath is set to take oath on Friday as the chief minister for a second straight term, the BJP has not yet revealed the names of the CMs in three other states ten days after the election results. Uttarakhand's Pushkar Dhami and state BJP chief Madan Kaushik met Amit Shah on Sunday morning. Ahead of the meeting, Dhami said: "The procedure for government formation is underway...the BJP central leadership will take a decision (on CM face)."

Similar replies are being given by Goa's Pramod Sawant and Manipur's Biren Singh too.

Uttarakhand had seen a lot of turbulence in the political landscape last year when two chief ministers - Trivendra Singh Rawat and Tirath Singh Rawat - had stepped down in quick succession. Pushkar Dhami finally took charge but, in this state election, he could not win his own assembly constituency in a huge embarassment.

Sawant and Biren Singh met Amit Shah and other top party leaders on Saturday as meetings stretched late into the night. "I never contested elections for the chief minister or any other post but as a worker of my party. The decision (on the CM's face) will be taken by higher authorities. I've come to Delhi to meet BJP's central leadership, to discuss (the government formation in Manipur)," Biren Singh had said on Saturday. Ministers Niramala Sitharaman and Kiren Rijiju left for Manipur on Sunday for a legislative party meeting.

The BJP won 20 of 40 seats in Goa, 32 of 60 seats in Manipur and 47 of 70 seats in Uttarakhand. In UP, the party won a second term with 273 seats (along with it allies).

The huddles for CM posts in the three states have been continuing for several days.

In Punjab, AAP's Bhagwant Mann took oath on Wednesday and his cabinet was sworn-in on Saturday.

(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)